STEVE DAMISH: The heroes who hide among us

Monday

Apr 28, 2014 at 2:25 AMApr 28, 2014 at 2:41 AM

Heroes are real. And heroes are here, among us. Just look at the marathon.

Steve Damish The Enterprise

I used the blur that was marathon week to help my children focus on heroism – a concept most kids connect with mysterious, far-away figures fabricated by Disney or DreamWorks.Or worse – they connect it with sports victories. Tom Brady, they are surprised to hear, has never done anything heroic on the field. Sorry, Gisele.

But this is good news, I tell them. Heroes aren’t detached superstars or distant celebrities who achieve success through fiction or fakery.

Heroes are real. And heroes are here, among us. Just look at the marathon.

They are stitched into the fabric of our local lives, ready to be tugged as needed. They are family, neighbors, friends – and they are just like us. They have bills, blemishes, cavities, dandelions on their lawn, dogs misbehaving on their walks, imperfect lives and imbalanced bank accounts.

Like everyone.

Many heroes are hidden among us – the hospital volunteers who greet a family and their child bound for surgery; everybody working with hospice; the mother who bought supplies for her son’s school; the crossing guard who volunteers each day at Pleasant and Main for just two walkers; or the neighbor who brought your grandmother soup after the cancer diagnosis.

All heroes. All close.

The marathon bombings, I tell my kids, didn’t create more heroes, but simply allowed us to see them in action – and then thank them.

One of them is Shane O’Hara, I tell them. He’s a hero, and doesn’t live far from us in Raynham. We see him at church. He has kids, runs a sports store, and has a sore knee just like Dad. Maybe you’ve seen him jogging through town, or mowing his lawn, only stopping to pull up dandelions.

Did you know what he did after the bombing? He turned his sports store into a medical center, his sports gear into tourniquets, bandages and pillows. He comforted the wounded, carried some from the blast zone, prayed with them, and provided focus and purpose even as dust and debris shrouded the area.

So did Bob O’Donnell – another hero. And another guy like us. He lives in the next town, I tell my kids – Easton – and is a firefighter in Stoughton.

Do you know what he did? When the first bomb exploded, he plunged into the horrific scene, caring for people who had lost legs, arms, and who were bleeding badly.

He used straps from women’s purses to tie around their damaged legs, and instructed others where to place a hand, where to offer a prayer, which person to help next.

A hero – and someone we’ve probably seen many times but never noticed.

Just like Brockton firefighter Donald Gazerro, who lives in West Bridgewater.

Gazerro was also off duty, but on the scene the instant tragedy struck. He performed CPR on several people, including the young boy who passed away, and tended to dozens of others. He became their hero.

These people aren’t alone in how they acted, how they sacrificed themselves for others, I tell my kids.

Dozens of other everyday heroes are close. I remind them of Ella Morrison, the Middleboro girl who sells lemonade for her friends with cancer. And Raynham’s Karen Weeks, who turned her husband’s death a few years ago into a celebratory cause to help cancer victims.

There’s West Bridgewater’s Jessie Russell, who learned to live with lupus, then dedicated her life to helping others struggling to do so. And Brockton’s Pauline Perkins, who committed her 30 years to her adopted Brockton and helped the city and its symphony soar.

And there is Brockton’s Mary Waldron, who shared her cancer battle; Dave Gorman, who shares his passion for kids races; and Norm Zaleski, Brockton’s biggest baseball booster – all heroes.

I could go on, I tell my kids, but it’s important you know that if you’re looking for heroes, they’re close. In fact, you need look in just two places to find them.

At the people around you. And – perhaps one day – at the person in the mirror.

Managing editor Steve Damish can be reached at Sdamish@enterprisenews.com.